George Hendee was an amazing bicycle racer, with 302 wins from 309 starts on the dangerous high-wheelers of the 1880s. He quit racing in 1886 to manufacture the new safety-bicycle design, with equal-sized wheels in the front and rear. Bicycle racing was the most-popular sport in America at the time, with tens of thousands crowding the stands at road races, and track events were held on banked wooden velodromes, or board tracks. In the 1890s, motorized cycle pacers made quite a noisy show and allowed cyclists to build up terrific speeds. These were often the first motorized vehicle ever seen by the spectators. These early pacers were plagued by troubles and often disappointed fans by breaking down, or catching fire. George Hendee was looking for a reliable pacer for his Silver King bicycle-racing team.

Oscar Hedstrom was also a bicycle racer, and an engineer who re-designed the ubiquitous De Dion-type engine in 1899. Hedstrom’s prototype engine worked very well, mostly because he’d also designed his own carburetor, the best in the world in 1899. George Hendee saw Hedstrom’s reliable pacers and approached him in the fall of 1900 with the idea of producing motorized bicycles. By May 25, 1901, their first prototype was climbing the steepest hills in Springfield, Massachusetts, and two more were built that year. They used all-chain drive on their machines, a legacy of their racing heritage, and real production began in 1902 under the brand name Indian. The production machines looked remarkably like the prototypes, which proved the rightness of that first design.

In 1908, Indian offered its first racing machine, the Torpedo Tank single-cylinder racer, one of the first catalog-offered racing motorcycles in the USA. By 1911, the Indian factory racing team used exotic 8-Valve machines, but privateers used the standard F-head singles and twins with great success. Indians were lucky on European tracks too, which peaked with a first-, second- and third-place sweep at the Isle of Man TT in 1911. This 1912 Indian Board Track Racer was built at the absolute peak of Indian’s international prowess, when they were the largest and most-successful American motorcycle factory. It hails from the Jack “The Bear” Coonrod collection and was restored to a beautiful standard by the man himself.

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Information found on the website is presented as advance information for the auction lot. Photos, materials for videos, descriptions and other information are provided by the consignor/seller and is deemed reliable, but Mecum Auction does not verify, warrant or guarantee this information. The lot and information presented at auction on the auction block supersedes any previous descriptions or information. Mecum is not responsible for information that may be changed or updated prior to the auction. The decision to purchase should be based solely on the buyers personal inspection of the lot at the auction site prior to the auction.